


incidental

by rexflame



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, i overslept and i ran out of time to edit this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 07:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5530427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rexflame/pseuds/rexflame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which rita morido is bad with ovens and estelle is her metaphorical knight in shining armor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	incidental

**Author's Note:**

> god, this is almost late and kinda short? i'm super sorry for that! anyway, this is for the 2015 tales of secret santa for saroku on tumblr! i hope they enjoy it, this was a tough piece to write as i'm not the greatest with the tov characters, but this was fun nonetheless! hopefully there's no formatting errors ;___;

Of three things, Rita Mordio is certain.

 

The first, and by far most important, is that if she hears one more holiday carol (especially if it is accompanied by Yuri loudly singing along off-key), she is going to throw a book at whatever (or whoever) is producing it. 

 

The second is that she has twelve missed calls.

 

The third is that her oven is on fire. 

 

Well, not exactly on fire, but the cookies she had tried to cook (Estelle had told her she should get into the holiday spirit, and she was always  _ so  _ weak to Estelle’s suggestions) were more like charred lumps, and more smoke than she’s ever seen in the past fifteen years of her life is pouring out of the oven. From a discarded radio on the counter, a Christmas carol mocks her. 

 

Her phone ringtone somehow makes the cheery song even  _ worse. _

 

Rita snaps up her phone, trying to ignore the smoke that’s at least stopped pouring out of the oven. She evacuates into a nearby room and answers with a snappy  _ “What?!” _

 

_ “Oh, Rita!”  _  Estelle’s voice crackles good-naturedly through the speaker, thankfully unperturbed by Rita’s general irritability. 

 

_ “Yuri’s been wondering where you are! You’ve missed all our calls.” _

 

“And I usually answer calls?” she responds, tucking the phone between her head and her shoulder and contemplating braving the kitchen.

 

_ “Well, Yuri’s holiday party was today! You said you were coming, but you didn’t show, and at first we thought you might be running late, but….” _

 

“Shit!” Rita all but yells, shuffling into the kitchen and coughing at the smoke. She makes an attempt to prop open a window, which works hardly at  _ all,  _ and she has to climb onto the counter in order to do so. 

 

_ “Rita, are you alright?”  _ Estelle’s worried voice comes in.

 

“I’m fine!” she shouts as she nearly falls through the window when it pops open surprisingly easily (why had she never replaced the screen?) Her phone drops to the floor in the process.

 

_ “Are you sure? I’m coming over.”  _

 

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Then again, maybe she really could use some help with this mess.

 

It’s little more than ten minutes before her door is opened (she never remembered to lock it, somehow, for all her wants of privacy.) Estelle practically bounces into her house, with the same jovial gait that she takes everywhere, and then takes one look at Rita’s kitchen, complete with Rita still sitting on the counter and fiddling with the window, and  _ laughs.  _

 

_ Laughs. _

 

“Were you…” she has to pause for giggles in the sentence.    
  
“Were you trying to cook?” 

 

“I was making cookies!” Rita protests indignantly, sliding off the counter, her hands on her hips.

 

“Making? What temperature did you put them in at?”

  
“Well, higher than the directions said. I figured if I raised the temperature and lowered the time proportionally, they should cook faster.”

 

And at this Estelle bursts into laughter again - somehow, even though Rita isn’t quite sure what’s so funny, she ends up laughing along with her.   

 

“Let’s clean out the oven,” Estelle offers in  _ that  _ tone (she could’ve suggested they jump off the roof and Rita would’ve happily gone along) “and I’ll show you how to bake cookies!

 

(Rita finds a bunch of cookie cutters she didn’t know she owned after that. Estelle is partial to the star ones - as loathe as she is to admit it, Rita likes the snowmen. They were cute. Estelle says that she was cute.

 

Rita is surprisingly okay with that.

 

Estelle is a good baker, and thankfully the kitchen is not aflame again. Her cookies are sweet. Rita says so. Estelle smiles and stays late.

  
Estelle kisses her cheek on the way out.)


End file.
